Bloomberg: Finland is trying to figure out how to handle the roughly 2,000 Bitcoins authorities in the country have confiscated.
Worth almost $40 million on Dec. 18, 2017, when the cryptocurrency peaked, the Bitcoins are now valued at about $22.8 million. Finnish government guidelines released on Tuesday make clear that authorities handling the coins won’t be allowed to store them on virtual currency exchanges. Instead, they’ll be required to keep them off the Internet, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.
Most of the coins have been confiscated in dozens of raids conducted since 2016, according to the customs office in Helsinki. It declined to say how it’s been storing the cryptocurrencies until now.
The new guidelines also state that authorities can’t treat Bitcoin or its crypto competitors like a currency. It’s an asset that, as a rule, can’t be used or accepted as a means of payment or as an investment, according to the Treasury document.
Cryptocurrencies seized by the Finnish state can be converted into euros after a court ruling on their appropriation has become binding. The sales should primarily take place via public auctions rather than commercial exchanges, which can be untrustworthy and opaque, the Treasury said.
